3rd November, 2002 @Yoshinobu Miyake Resident, RELNET CORP

Jomon People and Pillars

The excavation of San'nai-Maruyama remains in Aomori Prefecture where is the North end of Honshu Island of Japan brought us numbers of discoveries as a clue to the Mysterious 'Jomon Culture' in 5,000 years ago. (* Jomon culture started approx. BC 100 century and finished BC 5 century.) What I most pay attention among them is the discovery of 'marks of gigantic pillars'. Marks of pillars in tidy line suggest that there used to existed huge building (it could be shrine or residence or warehouse) and I think the news front reported the opinion of the experts as 'the culture level of 'Jomon people' was much higher than expected'.

However, I cannot agree with this opinion unconditionally. Needless to say, 'the culture level of Jomon people was higher', but the interpretation of 'marks of pillars' is totally different. Of course, I am not archeologist, so following opinion is entirely my conjecture. Even so, I believe it will become a valid theory and it would be appreciated if my readers would give me the opinions.

It is reported as 'marks of pillars in tidy line', but those gigantic holes (they had quite long diameter) were really marks of 'pillars' which support the buildings? Naturally, we, the people of modern life, regard 'those marks of pillars' in tidy line as 'the proof of the existence of the buildings'. If you have a little knowledge of architecture, it is not difficult to infer how big buildings were standing there from the diameter and the span. What I have on my mind, however, is such a simple question as this idea of 'pillars in line = buildings' equals to 'Jomon people'?

Significant Meaning of Standing Pillars

Let me tell you my conclusion first. They must be not the pillars for the buildings but the marks of 'the pillars'. It is regarded that the religious meaning of building a 'pillar' for the ancients is far beyond our imagination of the moderns. If you are the one who watched the opening ceremony of Nagano Olympic Winter Games, you might understand that 'On-hashira-Matsuri', which was handed down from ancient times, was expressed as a symbol. The most important is the action 'to build a pillar' itself.

We can understand easily how the human beings had been passionate for building something on the ground by looking around the world. The examples are the totem poles of the Native Americans, that is, Northeast Asian Mongoloids who have the same origin as the Jomons and the Stonehenge of the ancient Celts. There is a word 'homo erectus' in the anthropology term meaning that 'a man stands up and starts walking with feet' morphologically, but it cannot give us a clear answer for the fundamental question, 'why our ancestors should had abandoned their familiar four-foot walking and stood up?' Human beings had been having such a strong passion for 'standing up' from the very beginning. Therefore, they aimed at 'the higher things', felt the existence of divinity there and built 'pillars'.

Connecting Symbol between the Earth and Heaven

Then, why the 'hottate-hashira' which is a pillar directory standing from the ground shape was taken in Japan? The general theory says that 'the Japanese had not known the buildings on the cornerstone until when 'the culture' of Buddhism and the others from the mainland of China and the Korean peninsula. However, the predecessors in this country which has monsoon like humidity climate must had noticed that 'hottate-hashira' would had rot off soon. Because, if not, it is inexplicable that the 'hottate-hashira' architecture continued in many shrines such as the Grand Shrine of Ise, even after those massive buildings on the cornerstone, especially Buddhist temples, started building each place.

In the first place, in Japan, there was no conception of the building of a Shinto shrine to enshrine kami (gods) until some religions such as the Buddhism were introduced and the tiled roof on the cornerstone buildings were started to build. Those gigantic trees and rocks, or the mountain itself were used to be objects of worship as divine existence. The Buddhist temple, where to reach a metaphysical state of 'Nirvana' is their aim, used the cornerstone in order to separate from 'the ground of the material world'. In contrast to this, our predecessors, the animists, built a pillar as a symbol of the connection between the earth and the heaven. If so, the pillar should had been the 'hottate-hashira' and there kami-god came near.

Even nowadays, in this country, when we count kami-gods or the souls of the dead, we count like 'one hashira, two hashirac' We can easily imagine that the Jomons who were in San'nai-Maruyama thousands years ago built the massive 'pillar' to invite kami-gods. Marks of 'pillars in tidy line' must be the marks enshrined kami-gods symbolizing something respectively.

Pillars and Homo Erectus

The Yoshinogari remains in Saga Prefecture where is the North of Kyushu Island is a moat remain of the latter term of Yayoi period and many 'marks of pillars' are found there. (* Yayoi culture started approx. BC 4 century and finished AD 3 century.) The replica shows us the admirable building, a watch-house, but I like to question this as well. There is a recent established study called 'pollen archeology' and they try to infer botanic property of the area at the period of the remains by analyzing the substances such as 'pollens' included in the soils at the excavation. According to the analysis of the pollen archeology, at that time the Yoshinogari area was covered with trees of 20 or 30 meters high. It is an open field now, but if it was a forest in those days there is no meaning of the building itself like a watch-house. It is natural to assume that those 'marks of pillars' are also some sorts of religious monuments. If they were only for living, they had no need such a huge size of buildings.

Even nowadays, we Japanese set up 'bamboo' around the site at Ground Purification and a stupa just after funeral in one's family tomb in cemetery. By the way, for your information, the etymology of 'stupa' is Sanskrit of the ancient India. The word was introduced to Europe and became the derivation of the word 'statue' and 'status'. From this fact, we can assume that the human beings were really interested in 'to stand' and in that sense they were 'homo erectus (standing people)'.